We ar family - Day 8 -final

[Karla]

After hearing the forecast and watching the weather channel last night, we were prepared for today to be a “washout”. However, other than it being a tad windy (again!) it is a gorgeous day. We know we need a protected bay this morning so decide to head back to Francis.

We start out by looking for our Klepto Octo – sure enough he is under his rock again. We just peer in at him but keep the camera firmly in check . A little further down the way there is an octopus partically out of his den trying to get the conch out of its shell. He is more interested in his lunch than us, so we take the opportunity to take some pics.

My sister ventures on while the rest of us are taking more pictures of the Octopus. I swim near her and can see that she is photographing something. All of a sudden she gets very excited when she looks at the picture. Ends up she was taking a picture of a fish and when she clicked the camera she noticed a baby octopus. What are the odds??? You take a picture of something else and an octopus shows up. Wow – we’ve had some strange encounters with Octopuses (Hm – not sure what the plural of Octopus would be) this trip. Anyway, here is a picture of the little guy.



We continue our snorkel on toward Mary Point and come across a nurse shark and some other type of shark. The “other” shark has black on his fins so I’m guessing a black-tipped reef shark???


A few of us swim on around the point where we see lots of lobsters (at least 3) hiding in a crack in a rock. Finally, we decide it's time to head back. On the way we see our sharks again and also a spotted eel.

There is quite a bit of current to deal with on this snorkel, but "Wow" – this has to rank right up there as one of our best snorkels of the trip! When we get out of the water, my husband starts talking to a guy in a lyca suit. Later, I think we figured out it was Mack (of Papabou and Mack).
Francis is getting pretty busy by now, so time for us to make an exit. Home for lunch and to discuss where we’ll go for our final snorkel of the trip.

Head to North Haulover after lunch knowing that it is going to be rough but willing to deal with it since it's our last day. However, when we hear the surf pounding before we are even ½ way down the trail, we know that it isn't going to happen this trip . Oh well, something to bring us back next year (like we need a reason)

Decide to head to the South side and try Little Lameshur. We’ve never been that impressed with Little Lameshur, but then again, you never know from day to day which sea critter will pay a visit to which bay. We see a huge barricuda, several squid, an eel and an octopus in his den (I'm not sure what the Chinese calendar says, but I'm declaring this "the year of the Octopus"!)


Several of us swim around the point to the Yawzi trail entry point. It is quite rough so don't spend a lot of time there.

Head home to watch the weather channel and see how Chantal might affect our travel plans tomorrow.

When we wake in the morning we are pleasantly surprised to find that Chantal has passed to the south and doesn't appear to be impacting travel. Our flight from St. Thomas to Puerto Rico is about an hour late, but nothing to worry about since we have a 3.5 hour layover. Finally after what seems like an eternity we are on our 4.5 hour flight to Chicago. Unfortunately, my sisters are in the seat directly behind a screaming child - not just crying, but SCREAMING. Felt sorry for his parents - they were trying everything to calm him down but he wasn't having any of it. Lesson learned - never travel long distances without a good set of noise cancelling earphones!

It was an all around great trip. We're already counting the days till our next St. John visit.
One of my sisters found this on Pinterest - I think it sums things up nicely.

The sand may brush off
The salt may wash clean
The tan may fade
But the memories last forever

Anyway, thanks for the comments and hope you all have as much fun on your trip as we did on ours!

[Barb Y]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and beautiful pictures. I have loved escaping reality for a bit. Thanks again!

[ColumbiaSCTraveler]

I really enjoyed your trip report! Thanks for sharing.

And WOW - you hit the octopus jackpot!!!!! I haven't seen one YET on this trip!!! Fingers crossed!

[equineannie]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and BTW, the plural is octi. The shark was indeed a black tip, they are as common as nurse sharks in the USVI & BVI waters. Your photos are nice, may I inquire as to the camera? I am a PADI dive instructor and underwater photo/video person.Always interested in what equipment people use.

Cheers! Have a blessed day!

[dreamshark]

As always, astounding underwater pictures. I also took pictures of squid at Little Lameshur, but my pictures are fuzzy and blue; yours is the most delicately colored squid picture I've ever seen. Do you use some kind of filter to adjust the color out of the over-blue spectrum? I fiddle around with mine afterwards, but I never get anything like the true color you get.

And all those octopus and eel pictures - only careful observation and a gentle approach can account for those. Nice work.

[Karla]

Camera was a Canon D20. As expected, quality of photos is greatly affected by depth of water and how sunny and bright it is. No real secret to my photos other than the fact that I take tons and tons of pictures and then end up with a few good ones.

[EagleRayLover]

Nice reports! Sounds like your family
Had a great time!!